“We’re so excited to be expanding the festival and bringing internationally known jazz guitarist and vocalist Nick Colionne and his band to Grand Rapids to headline our festival,” said GRandJazzFest founder Audrey Sundstrom. “The complete lineup is an eclectic offering that expresses the full diversity of the jazz art form.”

Artists coming to Grand Rapids this summer include The Paul Keller AT SUNDOWN Quintet from Ann Arbor, led by bassist Paul Keller, a Grand Rapids native; and The Kinsey Report, a street-funk, blues-rock band from Gary, Indiana.

Local vocalist Edye Evans Hyde returns to perform with the Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra as well as with her own band at the festival sponsored by DTE Energy Foundation.

West Michigan’s Randy Marsh Organ Trio and Mind’s Eye also will be part of the festival co-sponsored by the City of Grand Rapids.

GRandJazzFest unveiled the 2013 lineup in April, designated by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History as Jazz Appreciation Month, and just ahead of International Jazz Day on April 30.

GRandJazzFest 2013 will open with the returning Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra.
“We always plan to open with big-band jazz, and here in Grand Rapids, that big band is our own Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra,” Sundstrom said.

Colionne, from Chicago, and The Kinsey Report, from Gary, Indiana, join eight Michigan-based acts for two days of big band jazz, blues, Brazilian jazz and smooth jazz among other styles.

Colionne was honored in 2007 as International Instrumental Artist of the Year Award at the Wave Jazz Awards, succeeding 2006 winner Chris Botti, and was nominated again for the award again in 2009.

A nominee as Guitarist of the Year and Entertainer of the Year by the American Smooth Jazz Awards in 2010, Colionne’s latest recording, “Feel the Heat,” follows six previous recordings with a long string of Top 10 hits.

Yates, a native of East Detroit, has toured or recorded with such Detroit-area and regional artists as violinist Regina Carter, trumpeter Marcus Belgrave and flutist Alexander Zonjic.

Landis, a seven-time winner of the Detroit Music Awards’ Outstanding Jazz Vocalist award, fronts a six-piece band of musicians playing bossa nova and samba as well as smooth jazz and Detroit-style funk.

GRandJazzFest has plans to organize a student jazz jam session during the 2013 festival. Go online to grandjazzfest.org for more information.

Grand Rapids City Commission in January approved GRandJazzFest as one of only 24 events the city will co-sponsor in 2013.

The City of Grand Rapids is a longtime co-sponsor of such events as Festival of the Arts and Celebration on the Grand as well as more recent entries such as ArtPrize and LaughFest.

Here's guitarist Nick Colionne in a live performance in September 2011.